Leon Morris

Leon Switch: Deep Dark Dubstep' from Loopmasters is a deep moody Dubstep sample collection that is packed with filthy basses, hard-edged percussion and Cinematic SFX. Leon Switch is a name synonymous with the UK Bass Music scene. Having produced under the Kryptic Minds moniker for the past 16 years, Leon is now striking out as a solo act once again, this time under Distance's Chestplate imprint.

The track that gives this album its deceptively ominous titl comes at its very end, after nearly an hour filled with sound and fury, light and darkness, joy and foreboding, controlled chaos and serendipitous serenity - all those qualities (and the many more) that Ivo Perelman and his cohorts have learned to coax from their instruments. But rather than strain the leash or burst the seams, the piece titled 'Breaking Point' serves as an inward-looking finale - a concluding meditation rather than a celebratory scherzo.

One for the Road, Willie Nelson's duet record with fellow American music maverick Leon Russell, followed months after his freewheeling, jam-heavy double album Willie and Family Live. This record (once a double LP, now a single CD) wasn't recorded live and the songs run a little shorter, but it shares the same sort of loose spirit and easy-rolling eclecticism as the two, essentially backed by the Family, run through a mess of country and pop standards.

Retrospective is an 18-track collection that features the bulk of Leon Russell's greatest hits ("Tight Rope," "Roll in My Sweet Baby's Arms," "Lady Blue," "Back to the Island"), plus many key album tracks. Since Russell was primarily an album artist, this approach doesn't necessarily do him justice, but for listeners who only want the hits, this will do.

Leon Russell never quite hit all the right notes the way he did on his eponymous debut. He never again seemed as convincing in his grasp of Americana music and themes, never again seemed as individual, and never again did his limited, slurred bluesy voice seem as ingratiating…